EU Draws Up Plans to Send Troops to Central Africa

Decision Expected Soon on Proposal to Support French, African Peacekeepers

By

Laurence Norman

Updated Jan. 8, 2014 4:07 p.m. ET

BRUSSELS—Draft plans for a European Union military mission in the Central African Republic envisage the deployment of hundreds of ground troops to buttress African and French forces struggling to prevent a bloodbath there, according to diplomats briefed on the proposal.

Under pressure from France, EU leaders last month asked the bloc's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to draw up options for an EU intervention in the country to...